


your star's still in the sky

by theriveroflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: (for the most part), Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Missing Scene, Multi, Post-Volume 4 (RWBY), RWBY Rarepair Week 2020, doing it anyways, is it a rarePAIR if it's a triad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26516344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: At Haven, they get a little bit of time to rest.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	your star's still in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Cold/Warm."
> 
> I've wanted to write a fic like this for ages -- poly JNR, heavy tones of grief/mourning, some hints of berries that never came to be...
> 
> Title from "Cold," from the V3 soundtrack.

They’re...safe at Haven. Maybe. They’ve arrived, at least.

Jaune looks at his shield and he sees Pyrrha’s tiara. He knows that integrating it in is how he’s remembering her, integrating her into him and that’s not...that isn’t enough. Because not enough people will know what it means. Not enough people will  _ understand  _ what’s on his shield. Not enough people will understand what it means to mourn her.

And he  _ was  _ closer to her. But he isn’t the only person who her loss affects. He isn’t the only person who’s experienced those ripples. He doesn’t know where her family is, where she’s from. Pyrrha didn’t like to talk about herself.

But he can try his hardest to remember her, along with his team, along with anyone else that was connected to her, that was torn apart by her death.

And as long as he remembers, he won’t say goodbye to her. As long as someone remembers, she doesn’t need to say goodbye. As long as someone remembers her, he can keep going, too.

Jaune isn’t the only one mourning. He isn’t even the one who is most worthy of having carried this torch for so long.

(And he feels guilty for something new arising.)

He  _ should  _ have gotten over it. Because...there wasn’t much. Sure, they were teammates, assigned partners by eye contact, and they had  _ one  _ kiss. He had loved her then, and so had she. In the end, that wasn’t enough.

Pyrrha’s desire to do the right thing was more important.

And that...that is a decision that he understands. Because he...in her place, he might have done the same thing. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t know what he would have done in her position, and he hopes that he  _ never  _ has to be in her position.

He doesn’t know if he would choose living over doing the right thing.

Pyrrha made that choice because she knew that she could slow the Fall. She failed -- she failed to reclaim the Maiden powers. Jaune doesn’t know exactly what happened at the top of that tower. Ruby came back holding Crescent Rose and Pyrrha’s tiara and told everyone that Pyrrha was dead. And she didn’t explain any further beyond that.

Ruby didn’t tell anyone, as far as he knows, but she could have avoided telling  _ him  _ specifically because of the everything spanning between Pyrrha and him.

And now he only has scraps of what used to be, the phantom touch of her lips on his.

(He knows that she would want him to move on, but it feels too soon -- if he even  _ is  _ starting to. He wasn't expecting to love them.

Even if Ren is the strongest person he knows, even if Nora always manages to make him feel more at ease just with her presence.

Letting go…

He doesn't have to.)

Jaune hasn't felt warmth since…since before the Fall. Haven feels warm, but in more of a suffocating way than a calming way like Beacon.

He doesn't know why.

* * *

Lie Ren is still struggling. It's only a few days since he defeated the nightmare that's been haunting him since...almost as long as he can remember.

His life is separated into  _ before  _ and  _ after,  _ but he doesn't have a lot of memories of Before. He doubts Nora has any more memories of before than he did, and he knows that she was unhappier.

He has to cling to those few memories of before, because that's all that's left.

He's supposed to let go. He's supposed to have let his grief go as the remnants of the Nuckleavee scattered in the wind. But mourning isn't linear.

He knows that, but he still doesn't want to allow himself to feel it.

He doesn't use his Semblance on himself often anymore. When it was the only way to avoid Grimm, it was okay, but Nora insisted that he stop when they got to Beacon. She would be disappointed if she knew.

(And they're moving towards  _ something,  _ he knows, with the hand holding on the plane. But if Nora is the steady beat in his heart, then Jaune is the pulsing of electricity in his brain.)

(He thought that it always took forever to fall in love, but he knows not everyone is...not everyone is him and Nora.)

They're approaching a waterfall, and he wants nothing more than to pull over to the shore and stop instead of taking the plummet. He's never been one for plummeting, in general.

Nora's the impulsive one. He's the overly-cautious one.

That's how it's been -- Nora trying to take leaps and him stopping her.

But if she asked him to jump here, would he go with her?

* * *

Nora Valkyrie has never had much. Her life is divided into before and after she met Ren, a day marked...marked by so much tragedy, but also a new beginning for her. Something that she’s never had. She wasn’t aone anymore. She didn’t have anything, but she had  _ someone.  _ Something besides herself, someone else to live for.

She doesn’t remember much of  _ before,  _ but that isn’t important. She and Ren have had each other for almost as long as she can remember, as long as both of them can.

(And Ren...Ren at least has the memory of his parents. Nora doesn’t have any memories besides scrounging to survive, struggling with no purpose.

And then she had one.)

She’s had a long time to develop and come to terms with her feelings. They’ve been with each other, drifting closer, growing together.

And then Beacon.

Pyrrha was almost the epitome of the academy, the shining light it was named for. She never thought that there could be anyone else besides Ren, but her other two teammates…

She never thought of herself as quick to fall because with Ren it was always the beat of her heart, the slow and steady flow of lines coming to an eventual intersection.

(And she knows, she hopes, she dreams of that intersection coming soon.)

It feels cold without Ren beside her. She doesn’t know where he is right now -- somewhere. And she knows that he probably needs time to process after everything that happened with the Grimm. Something...she doesn’t want to see him go off like that again. She wishes that he would find a healthier way to process things. She wishes that he would stop repressing himself.

But she knows that now that he’s defeated the threat and avenged himself he’ll think that he can just...go back to the way things used to be, without actually  _ processing  _ any of it.

She wants him to process it, whatever form that comes in.

Jaune finds her first. “Have you seen Ren?”

She shakes her head, hanging it low. “I haven’t seen him, but I think that he’s in the garden.”

"Alright," he says. "I'll find him."

* * *

Jaune finds Ren exactly where Nora said he would be. Nora knows more than Jaune, so it makes sense that she would get it. Ren is sitting in a lotus position, likely attempting to meditate. And the gardens are a perfect place for it. He can't picture Ren coming from anywhere besides Mistral. It just suits him. He fits with the landscape, the plants around him.

Ren looks like he belongs here.

(And also very beautiful.)

Jaune sits cross-legged besides him, and waits for Ren to notice.

* * *

When Ren opens his eyes, he jumps upon noticing someone beside him, and relaxes once his brain puts together that it's Jaune.

"How long have I been here?" he asks Jaune, who looks strangely bleary.

"At least two hours, probably not more than three. I fell asleep at one point, so my timing might be off. I didn't want to disturb you. Both of us were looking for you."

Ren looks away, ashamed that he upset Nora by running off. "Thank you."

Jaune stands up, reaching a hand towards him. "Come with me. Come back to us."

Ren takes it. He lets Jaune lead him away from the garden, the sunset streaking colors through the blue sky.

He knows about the unsaid understanding between Nora and Jaune. He doesn't know what it is. But it is something. They all have their own unique relationships.

And he can't...he can't let himself hope that they can come together.

* * *

A knock. Nora opens up the door. Jaune and Ren are still holding hands, and they come in when she moves away from the doorway to let them in.

They don't end up talking. As much as she wants to breach the silence, she almost feels as though everything that needed to be said for now has already been said. Not to say that there shouldn't be communication in the future...but for now there's nothing left that wouldn't feel forced.

There's a time and a place for force, and this is not it.

Nora sits on the bed, but Jaune and Ren sit on the floor despite the implication that she wants them to sit with her. And maybe lay down and do some cuddling.

She ends up joining them on the floor.

They lean against each other. It feels...warm, in a way that she hasn't felt in a long time. There's still a chill, a missing piece -- a missing piece that they'll never have back.

That they won't know what happened to.

But that's okay. They don't have to say goodbye. It's not time. And she knows that saying it doesn't mean that they're forgetting her. Pyrrha is memorialized in Jaune's shield and every bit of memory that they manage to hold on to.

And the warmth she feels now...isn't complete, but they have to accept that it won't be. Three feels off-balance -- but she doesn't want anyone else besides them.

* * *

Leaning against Ren, a hand held towards Nora...Jaune feels at peace, more than he was in the garden, more than he has since the Fall.

They're...not a team. But they don't have to be, because they're more than teammates. Beacon sometimes felt like two pairs instead of one team of four. That was the reality sometimes. But now he doesn't have the other half of his pair, and...and he has to repair those bonds. It's  _ easy  _ to, he's gotten there already. The circumstances…

Jaune doesn't feel warm (at least, not above the physical level), but he doesn't feel cold anymore either.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me elsewhere online, if you want:  
> alto-tenure - main Tumblr  
> the-river-of-light - visual art Tumblr  
> beunforgotten - writing Tumblr  
> riverofliight - Twitter


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